Kazakhstani health ministry reports zero effect from its $33 million investments in digitalization

According to Minister of Health of Kazakhstan Akmaral Alnazarova, the agency she has been heading failed to get any tangible results in the sphere of digitalization despite $33 million in investments the ministry has spent over the past five years. Now, the official wants to do everything possible to improve the ministry’s digital infrastructure and complete the current projects in this area by the end of 2024.

«Digitalization issues in the sphere of healthcare must be restarted. Everything must be transparent. Over the past five years, we have spent more than $33 million on this purpose and the result is almost zero. All the systems we have do not work properly and we can’t rely on them in securing transparency in the use of resources,» she said during a meeting with MPs on the issue of healthcare development.

As Alnazarova noted, there are more than 35 different medical and information systems in Kazakhstan which make it more difficult to render medical services and downgrade the quality of doctors’ work. The ministry has already fired the top executive responsible for this sector and has taken necessary measures aimed at optimization of this work.

«There are no new calculations on costs. We are going to allocate $6.6 million for the state center for e-healthcare. Of course, we have to make this task crystal clear and ensure this work is effective and meets the industry’s needs,» the health minister said.

She also pointed out that many pieces of expensive medical equipment acquired by the government remain idle in some hospitals. This happens even in the capital city of Astana which has already forced the agency to conduct a thorough review of its procurement plan for the next year.

On February 28, Vice Minister of Health Beibut Yessenbayev quit the office. In 2018, as a director of the Digitalization Department, he promised to digitalize all the country’s medical organizations by 2021. At the time, he said that the government would create a single platform where all regional information systems would be integrated. This was expected to provide any Kazakhstani citizen with a unique digital box with information about his or her health.

Since September 2022, Kazakhstan has been implementing the Digital Card project for families. Once the project is fully implemented, the government will provide citizens with all necessary benefits even without an application.